Pentagon Papers Whistleblower: Snowden Won't Get a Fair Trial

[bananas]

Source: NBC News

Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg said Friday he does not believe Edward Snowden would receive a fair trial if he returned to the United States.

Ellsberg — who Secretary of State John Kerry praised for standing trial and defending himself in the Vietnam war-era while bashing Snowden as a “coward” and “traitor” on Wednesday — told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" on Friday that the 1917 Espionage Act under which Snowden is charged prevents him from getting a shot at justice.

"He's a fugitive, not as Secretary Kerry says from justice — he's a fugitive from injustice. He has no chance of a fair, just trial in this country," Ellsberg said.

Kerry’s comments, also to MSNBC, came in advance of Snowden’s exclusive interview with NBC News, in which Snowden, from a hotel room in Russia, told Brian Williams that he misses the United States.

<snip>

Ellsberg, calling Kerry's statement "despicable," said the Espionage Act gave Snowden nearly no chance at justice if he returns to the U.S.

"He'd be facing a jail cell from the time he stepped off the plane here," Ellsberg said. "He would probably never get out, unless the Espionage Act is changed, as it should be."

Ellsberg is a former military analyst who worked on the top-secret study of U.S. decision-making in the Vietnam War, which came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. In 1969, he secretly photocopied the 7,000-page study, which revealed the U.S. government had knowledge that the war most likely could not be won, and gave it to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and later to newspapers across the country.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/edward-snowden-interview/pentagon-papers-whistleblower-snowden-wont-get-fair-trial-n118561

[bananas]

1. I'm glad the mainstream news sites are reporting on this.

Over at conservativecrackpots.com, they lock these threads.

[JDPriestly]

2. K&R.

[JoeyT]

3. Which everyone already knew.

Some may feign ignorance of it, but they know it too. They just happen to like the idea.

[jeff47]

4. Well, that would because he's broken the law

Interestingly enough, he probably couldn't have been convicted if he had stayed in Hawaii.

Civilian espionage law requires the "spy" to release the information for money, or to a foreign country. The UCMJ has no such requirement, hence Manning's conviction.

Since Snowden flew to Russia, he's now accepted money from a foreign country in return for his leaks....yes, the fact that the money came after-the-fact doesn't matter.

If Snowden had handed the documents over to US media, it's not clear he would have committed a crime. It isn't illegal under the letter of the law. The closest we've come to testing that is Ellsberg's case, but that has so many other problems it's not 100% clear what would happen with Snowden.

Sure, Snowden would have lost his clearance and been fired, but it's not clear he could have been convicted if he stayed in the US. Now? It would be a cakewalk to convict.

[MannyGoldstein]

10. The Espionage Act of 1917 couldn't be used?

President Obama's used it more than all other presidents combined, IIRC.

One of the wild things about that Act, again IIRC, is that the death penalty is a possibility.

[ZombieHorde]

5. No one gets a fair trial in the US.

The US justice system is about by how many quality lawyers the defendant can afford, so it's really just a punishment system, in my opinion. You're punished for being poor.

[Enthusiast]

6. Kicked and recommended!

Because justice is "different" now. And the nation has changed fundamentally since the Neo-Cons took over.

[rhett o rick]

7. He wouldnt get a fair trial. He isnt getting a fair trial in our media today.

Thanks for posting

[Blue_Tires]

8. The Russia and China thing will continually haunt him,

along with his not-so-subtle pimping of his "expertise" in exchange for a permanent asylum deal and passage out of Russia...

The "traitor" label has a LOT less bite had he fled to a non-rival nation, so he only has himself to blame -- Especially since he's still harboring magical fantasies of a full pardon and a hero's welcome...And nobody start with that long-debunked, tired old talking point about Washington "trapping" him in Moscow, because he never had to go there...(and even then, he's free to leave whenever he wants, assuming the Russians aren't locking him down) The only things trapping Snowden in Russia are his lack of foresight, poor strategy from his advisors, and possibly the Russians themselves...

[Psephos]

16. Which "non-rival nation" should he have chosen?

I would appreciate a direct answer.

[Blue_Tires]

17. Brasil? Iceland? Germany?

Whichever countries were supposedly on his "wish list" when this whole thing stared...

Hell, even Cuba would have been a smarter destination...

The real question is why didn't he just do a little research, go to the country of his choice and THEN out himself?

[Psephos]

18. None of those countries were options.

Did you read the news at that time? If you're going to make a reasonable argument, facts are not optional.

The US government threatened potential destination countries with extreme duress, and of course, they caved.

Now we know even better why they caved - because the US government had vast quantities of illegally obtained "information" from all their leaders. Ask Angela Merkel how that works. Or ask Evo Morales, whose presidential plane was forced to land in Austria so it could be searched for Snowden.

[Blue_Tires]

19. Half a dozen countries or more were listening to Merkel's phone

because she insisted on using a poorly secured one, and U.S. Intelligence would have been remiss to not take advantage...

If you're going to make a reasonable argument, facts are not optional.


If Snowden is so scared of the Big Bad USA arm-twisting and intimidating every other country in the free world to reject an asylum deal, then he should be happy to spend the rest of his life where he is...

[Psephos]

20. Transparent attempt to avoid answering the question.

You still haven't named one actually available "non-rival nation" that would meet your criteria.

As for Merkel, who is merely incidental to the discussion, "US intelligence would have been remiss not to take advantage..."????

Because international law doesn't matter, but is just a scheme to placate the rubes?

Your viewpoint is that of a royalist, and your belief that a powerful country should trash law and diplomacy just because it can is exactly why the world no longer looks up to the US, and is working to abandon the US dollar as reserve currency.

My distaste for authoritarians grows by the hour....

[blkmusclmachine]

9. ,

,

[MannyGoldstein]

11. Given that the US had the plane of a head of state forced down

to try to nail "some hacker", it's a safe bet that the rule of law wouldn't be a high priority in Snowden's prosecution.

[reddread]

15. stupid facts

we bear so much shame for our out of control government's wild indignities.

[Whisp]

21. some DUers made it sound like it was shot down personally by Obama.

[MannyGoldstein]

22. Can you link to those?

Thanks.

[Whisp]

23. sure, I have about a million (useless) blue links to prove anything!

Useless because proving anything with proof, is no proof at all!

I guess if you stuck around some of those threads you would remember.
Or maybe you would select something else to remember instead.

[Major Hogwash]

12. Maybe Ellsberg thinks Snowden would get a fair trial in Russia.

Seriously, if Ellsberg knew exactly what Snowden did, then he should defend him at his trial.
Otherwise, he should just shut the hell up!!

[YOHABLO]

13. Yeah but Snowden was told to ''man up'' come on Snowden, man up .. bend over and take it like a man.

Threats to our ''masculinity'' seem to be a real motivator in this country.

[toby jo]

14. Ellsberg is a class act. We're lucky to have people like him in this country.

Glad he stuck it to Kerry in a public way.